The first XCAT find of 2026 is here! Console 2156****4105 uploaded the Italian update 4 for Halo 2 from an 80gb Maxtor HDD. The last find was Halo 2 Japanese update 5 in December. XCAT is preserving the history of Xbox Live. Please run it even on old HDD upgraded consoles. consolemods.org/XCAT

Happy New Year! To go with the recent Hardware update, I have an update from the OpenXHD firmware dev team for you. Thank you Clegg and everyone else on the dev team for your hard work! I also spent the last week reorganizing some hardware for an easier to hand assemble layout for the new board.

Merry Christmas Xbox fans! It has been two very challenging years, but work continues on the OpenXHD project. Hardware is complete, pending updates from the FW dev team. Speaking of which, there is a FW dev team! Things are moving along quicky now and I will have more news for you soon!

I got cozy and wrote some homebrew for Xbox-Scene's Modfest 2025! This is a simple app that lets you set your Xbox 360's clock past 2025. I learned a lot and even documented a couple SMC commands on Free60 wiki. Get it on ConsoleMods or the Homebrew Store! consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox_36...

Ridiculous project of the week: Unhappy with the 2MB storage limitation on Pico Zero and Tiny boards, I decided I needed more. A random discarded 16MB chip should enough!

It is a good week for xbox preservation! Console 1153****3505 uploaded Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Update 2 PAL for France, Germany, and Italy. We are only missing the newest update for Asia regions now. Please remember to run XCAT on all your old original Xbox HDDs. consolemods.org/XCAT

LD50_II from the NorCalHalo group uploaded 2 previously unknown ESPN College Hoops (2K4) DLCs! NCAA Schedule Update 1 NCAA Roster Update 1 They have been passed onto Rocky5 to add to his downloader, and should be available to download soon! consolemods.org/XCAT

v2 of my Xbox chain-loader is now fully open source :) This is the loader used in Skeleton Key

Another Original Xbox preservation win. Console 4133****3905 uploaded the missing PAL update for (ToCA) Race Driver 2 XCAT is working to preserve original Xbox Live history and provide for the future of Original Xbox online gaming. consolemods.org/XCAT

XCAT strikes again! Thanks to our friend hardly in Japan we have recovered another lost DLC for Thousand Land on original Xbox. The recovered DLC is already on Rock5's downloader. Please help recover lost Xbox Live content. Run XCAT on every OG Xbox hard drive you can find! consolemods.org/XCAT

Our latest podcast episode is up! Earlier this summer Hit Save director @jonasrosland.bsky.social sat down CrunchBite, current project lead on the #XLinkKai tunneling program, and got the story behind one of gaming's most enduring community-driven projects dedicated to connecting gamers worldwide.

Direct podcast link here: creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

📢 ConsoleMods T-shirts are now up for sale on the ArtisticPixels site!! Huge thanks to @arielaces.bsky.social for making it possible for everyone to spread the love :) www.artisticpixels305.com/product-page...

Shoutout to @mrmario2011.com for his coverage of the Skeleton Key ENDGAME payload for OG Xbox! www.youtube.com/watch?v=EysF... Don't forget you can use the Skeleton Key launcher menu to quickly backup your EEPROM by just putting the IP shown on the bottom left of the menu into your browser.

OG Xbox archival news! The last missing Title Update for Project: Snowblind has been found. This game's XBL content is now fully archived! 5 PAL region DLC unlocks for Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix also found! Thank you zeealucard! Keep rocking consolemods.org/XCAT

The ConsoleMods Wiki is hosting another edit marathon. Come help out and win prizes! www.retrorgb.com/consolemods-...

I have contacted LoveMHz again about the edited screenshots and lies he is hosting about myself and friends in the Xbox community on his blog. He has made it clear he is content dispensing these lies. I am a little surprised he is determined to lie to everyone with no benefit.

XCAT v1.08 is out! consolemods.org/xcat There is a 2-3x speed increase and better handling for network errors. Happy archiving! 🍻

Fuck it, let's try to help: Natalie makes cool shit and offers tons of info completely free. Links in the post: www.retrorgb.com/natalies-gam...

The hits just keep on coming for XCAT! Yesterday Xbox 3123****4305 uploaded: Star Wars: The Clone Wars DLC: Kashyyyk Conquest for PAL regions. Star Wars: The Clone Wars PAL TU Ninja Gaiden older PAL TU. Today Xbox 1175****5105 uploaded an older German TU for Far Cry Instincts. consolemods.org/XCAT

Hopefully coming soon to an @insignia.live near you!

Did you know the Japan exclusive game Thousand Land had DLC? I didn't either until cheato of Alpha Archive found 5 of 18 previously unknown DLC maps just a few days ago. These maps have been archived and are now available on Rocky5's URL Downloader. consolemods.org/XCAT

Help out if you can! www.retrorgb.com/sony-pdf-sor...

Console 5035****3505 with a non stock ExcelStor J880 80gb HDD in it uploaded Halo 2 Update 4 German and 380 Yelo scene captures to the XCAT database today. We are down to 19 Halo 2 missing TUs. Korean, Spanish, Japanese Update 5 are still missing. consolemods.org/XCAT

I've took a break from posting about the Xbox preservation work during some ongoing health issues that I thought would be resolved by now. The work never stopped, I've just been quiet about it. I'll start posting news and updates on the bounty of new finds again starting today.

this is the RIAA's DMCA claim - later counter-claimed - towards youtube-dl github.com/github/dmca/... this is MakeMHz's DMCA claim towards an FTP client github.com/github/dmca/... in what world can you see what MakeMHz LLC is doing as good faith attempts at protecting their own copyrighted work

It doesn't seem like this should work, but it totally does! You can even still video chat with others over Insignia (Xbox Live) in 2025. Here's a guide on how you can mod an Eyetoy to work on Og Xbox: consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Ey...

An unfortunate notice for XCAT: consolemods.org/XCAT We have ended attempts to restore XCAT functionality on the Stellar modchip FW 1.5.0+. When our lead dev spoke with LoveMHz to resolve the situation, they lied in their responses. I'm sorry we couldn't resolve this for you. 1/2

lovemhz.com/blog/xbox-scene-theft-part-2/ Hey look more misleading statements, more conflation of unrelated issues, still refusing to remove deceitfully cropped images that tell complete lies. I guess it is just to hard for LoveMHz to tell the truth for literally one second, or to leave me alone.

To LoveMHz: This is not an apology lovemhz.com/blog/xbox-sc... 1) Trying to excuse your poor behavior, state an intent to apologise then don't apologize. 2) You did not remove my name or the deceitful cropped screens: lovemhz.com/blog/xbox-sc... 3) You HID the retraction: github.com/LoveMHz/love...

Skeleton Key is a freely available community built toolkit for the Original Xbox that runs on stock (unmodded) consoles - Softmod your console (Rocky5) - Change your video settings - Access your hard drive - Upload lost DLC content (XCAT) - Register with Insignia (Xbox Live replacement) (and more)

There are no winners here. LoveMHz's attacks on the xbox community have made a mockery of the wide reaching collaboration we've all contributed to over many years. The success of Insignia, XCAT, new HW mods, preservation efforts + more are all part of that collaborative effort.

Update on the LoveMHz spurious accusations against in the Xbox community: www.ogxbox.com/forums/index... They created a forum thread, levied more accusations, refused to respond to proof the accusations were false, ignored evidence their "clean" code may be taken from MS source leaks.

MakeMHz has issued a DMCA takedown against Pandora, an automated way of accessing Xbins. Xbins is a repository of homebrew apps, games, and BIOSes for the Original Xbox that has been around for many, many years. Xbins still exists, but Pandora is now unavailable to download or be developed publicly.

To help make up for lost sales due to fake DMCA takedowns on their shops, I gave an unlimited license to two shops for my Xbox Trace Fix repair kit card. darkonecustoms.com/store/p/trac... This is essentially a fancier version of the individual kits I released the gerbers to in January.

In between dealing with the insanity overnight I've been prepping the newest batch of Steel Battalion replacement part and upgrade part orders. Linked toggle switch board, standard and universal toggle switch board, no-contact gear shift and a Logitech pedals adapter.

My newest Steel Battalion replacement part toggle switch board is here! This board fits the original switches, the modern replacements I use as well as several other random toggle switches. This is the first Steel Battalion board I'll be releasing on github for users to make their own.

There is no straw man here. LoveMHz lied, made malicious, and deceitful claims about myself and my work on OpenXHD. They talk about taking accountability while taking none, talk about silence while silencing everyone. This is posion to the entire retro gaming and modding community.

I'm not going to tell people what to believe then silence anyone who wishes to respond. I responded to all of LoveMHz's lies more than enough times. github.com/Ryzee119/Xbo... github.com/OGXHarcroft/... Please judge for yourself and interrogate me about anything you are concerned with.

MakeMHZ is an abusive bully threatening sites talking about his competition and issuing false DMCA takedowns. He repeatedly gaslights the community to attempt to control the narrative. Read more here: archive.is/Tnet1

If you don't like it, destroy it?

Didn't Last Week Tonight do an entire episode about this crap?

It looks like the ogxbox.com form sustained legal threats by bad actors too. www.ogxbox.com/forums/index... Why does it feel like one person is trying to own an entire community?

Real preservation work coming to a redump database near you. Great work @siktah.bsky.social !

I've been fairly quiet about OpenXHD because I wanted to avoid further drama from LoveMhz. They decided they wanted to invent drama anyway. So I said my piece, and while I hope that's the end of it, I think we all know it wont be. www.xbox-scene.info/forums/topic...

I'm pretty late on this one to be honest (released the gerbers 6 months ago) though I am trying to catch up on the social media "obligations". Xbox front panel trace fix kits. A pointless little project that a friend kept nagging me to get done: www.ogxbox.com/forums/index... Coming to github soon!

ReZ, one of our OpenXHD testers is live streaming a bit of Forza gameplay from an otherwise stock Original Xbox console! www.twitch.tv/rez1988 consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Op...

I finally got around to posting the OpenXHD P03 gameplay stream from June last year. We have gone through several revisions since then and are now on Release Candidate 1 for the main board. youtu.be/SMMoXBWwSFI Thank you punny88 from Halo Classic Hub for fixing the OBS audio desync issues.

At the Hamilton Game Swap today! Come hang out and play some retro games with gamers of all ages, or maybe find that last game you've been looking for!

I ran one more small batch of Skeleton Key flash drives and adapters. I'll be handing these out tomorrow at the Hamilton Game Swap. Have your own flash drive or mem unit? Grab the files and make your own Skeleton Key toolkit for free! www.xbox-scene.info/articles/ske... consolemods.org/XCAT